Carrier Phase Method Research Articles

Evaluation of the performance of GNSS-based velocity estimation algorithms

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based velocity estimation is one of the most cost-effective and widely used methods in determining velocity in geodesy and transport applications. Highly accurate and reliable velocity measurements can be obtained by exploiting the raw Doppler, carrier phase, and pseudorange measurements with a GNSS receiver. There are several approaches to GNSS-based velocity determination. This paper investigates the characteristics of the approaches which are currently popular and applicable to the observations of Global Positioning System (GPS), BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), and their combination (GPS/BDS). Specifically, it evaluates the performance of the velocity estimated based on the Raw Doppler method, the Time-Differenced Pseudorange method, the Time-Differenced Carrier Phase method, and the Double-Differenced Carrier Phase method, in both static and dynamic modes and in open and urban scenarios. The experiments show that BDS has the advantages in delivering accurate velocity determinations over GPS in the Asia–Pacific region, and the effectiveness of the GPS/BDS in improving the overall accuracy of velocity determination in complex urban scenarios.

New observations of the total electron content and ionospheric scintillations over Ho Chi Minh City

In January 2018, a Trimble NetR9 GNSS receiver was installed at International University - Vietnam National University (IU-VNU), which is located at 10°52'N, 106°48'E in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The GNSS signals recorded from the receiver are useful for studying the ionospheric variations over this station as well as the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling effects, therefore, we aim to preliminarily process and evaluate data recorded from this new station. Based on the data obtained with this GNSS receiver, we first estimated the total electron content (TEC) using the carrier-phase method which is a combination of code and phase measurements. We then calculated the rate of change of TEC index (ROTI) with respect to time and investigated its day-to-day variations. Our results show some typical features in the diurnal and seasonal TEC and ionospheric scintillation variations during 2018-2019. The distributions of ROTI over these two years of solar minimum show significant occurrences of scintillation, which are caused by small-scale ionospheric irregularities in the equatorial ionosphere. In addition, we found a significant increase of TEC in the latest strong geomagnetic storm in August 2018. The disturbance dynamo appears to have suppressed plasma bubbles after sunset and enhanced their formation at midnight. Thus, the disturbance dynamo effectively caused a delay of ionospheric scintillations. The TEC observed in HCMC also contributes to the data of ground-based observational receiver systems along 105o E longitude for studying ionospheric variations in low-latitude and equatorial regions. Our preliminary results indicate that the GNSS data collected at IU-VNU station is a valuable reference dataset for further research of the ionosphere.

An overview on GNSS carrier-phase time transfer research

global navigation satellite system (GNSS) carrier phase observations are two orders of higher accuracy than pseudo-range observations, and they are less affected by multipath besides. As a result, the time transfer accuracy can reach 0.1 ns, and the frequency transfer stability can reach 1×10−15 with carrier phase (CP) method, therefore CP method is considered the most accurate and promising time transfer technology. The focus of this paper is to present a comprehensive summary of CP method, with specific attention directed toward day-boundary clock jump, ambiguity resolution (AR), multi-system time transfer and real-time time transfer. Day-boundary clock jump is essentially caused by pseudo-range noise. Several approaches were proposed to solve the problem, such as continuously processing strategy, sliding batch and bidirectional filtering methods which were compared in this study. Additionally, researches on AR in CP method were introduced. Many scholars attempted to fix the single-difference ambiguities to improve the time transfer result, however, owing to the uncalibrated phase delay (UPD) was not considered, the current studies on AR in CP method were still immature. Moreover, because four GNSS systems could be used for time-transfer currently, which was helpful to increase the accuracy and reliability, the researches on multi-system time transfer were reviewed. What’s more, real-time time transfer attracted more attention nowadays, the preliminary research results were presented.

Comparative study of GPS-TEC smoothing techniques

The availability of permanent global positioning system (GPS) stations makes the ionosphere monitoring and space weather studies more attainable. In order to obtain precise ionosphere total electron content (TEC) measurements, a smoothing technique has to be used. The objective of this research is to examine the accuracy and performance of two different TEC smoothing techniques; the carrier phase smoothed code and code levelled carrier phase techniques. GPS data from three stations in North America, located in different latitudes, are used. The accuracy of the smoothed TEC is compared with international GNSS service global ionospheric maps (IGS-GIM) and national oceanic and atmospheric administration (NOAA) ionospheric maps. The results reveal that the accuracy of the estimated TEC from the phase-smoothed code method depends upon the quality of data, number of observations used in the smoothing interval, receiver and satellite differential code biases (DCB). The levelled carrier phase method produces more calibrated TEC, however, with the influence of the systematic errors and the differential code biases.

Kalman filtering for GPS/magnetometer integrated navigation system

This paper investigated the data processing method for a GPS/IMU/magnetometer integrated system with Kalman filtering (KF). As a result of GPS/IMU/magnetometer land vehicle system, dead-reckoning of magnetometer and accelerometer integrated subsystem bridged very well the GPS signal outage due to the trees on the two sides of the road. Both differential GPS data processing method and the carrier-phase method with magnetometers’ outputs for predicting the car position, velocity, and acceleration (PVA) are presented. The results from DGPS with Kinematical Positioning (KINPOS) software shown that the averages of the north, east, and down direction standard deviation (short for “std”) are 0.014, 0.010, and 0.018 m, respectively. The std of velocities and accelerations derived by the position and velocity differentiation are 10, 7, 13 mm/s, 7, 5, 9 mm/s 2, respectively. This method for getting velocities and accelerations requires higher accurate position coordinates. But the position accuracy has frequently been degraded in this case when the car drove under the trees or other similar kinematical environments. That caused the larger velocity and acceleration errors. While the results from the carrier-phase method are std of the velocities = 2.1 mm/s, 1.3 mm/s, 3.7 mm/s in north, east, down, and std of the accelerations = 1.5 mm/s 2, 0.9 mm/s 2, 2.3 mm/s 2 for the static test period; as compared with KINPOS software results, std of the velocity difference between the carrier-phase method and the DGPS method = 7 mm/s, 6.9 mm/s, 9.7 mm/s in north, east, down direction, and std of acceleration difference = 5.0 mm/s 2, 4.5 mm/s 2, 7.5 mm/s 2 in north, east, down direction for the kinematical test period. Obviously, errors come from both the carrier-phase method and DGPS velocity and acceleration results derived directly by the position differentiation. In addition, better accuracy of positions than that before KF has been got by means of velocities and accelerations derived by the carrier-phase method after KF.

High-Rate Precise Real-Time Positioning Using Differential Carrier Phase

Differential carrier-phase positioning overcomes some of the operational limitations of carrier-phase kinematic positioning in a real-time environment. Unlike kinematic positioning, differential carrier-phase positioning does not require time matching of reference and remote station data. The observation time matching adds the data link delay to the position latency and prevents positioning when the reference data transmission is interrupted. The differential carrier-phase algorithm is based on determining and then applying the GPS carrier-phase errors instead of direct observation differencing. The differential carrier-phase method enables several-centimeter positioning at a high rate dependent on the remote receiver observation rate, but relatively independent of the data link transmission rate. This paper discusses the design, successful implementation, and test results of a real-time differential carrier-phase system.

Output Harmonics of PWM Inverter for LSM Drive.

The introduction of a multiple PWM inverter to the power supply system for LSM drive is examined. The author are examining about the output harmonics of the inverter which is composed of a Half Bridge (HB) unit and Full Bridge (FB) ones.The PWM inverter generates the lowest frequency harmonics of fc (Hz), which is the carrier wave frequency of HB unit. To improve the characteristics of the output harmonics, the author have proposed “the balanced carrier phase method”, which assignes balanced phase angles to the carrier waves of units with HB connection.In this paper, the principle of the proposed method is described. Then the author derive the analytic expression of the output voltage, and examine quantitatively about the characteristics of output harmonics. Moreover, the author show that the new method shifts the lowest frequency of the harmonics to higher region and reduces whole quantity of harmonics in comparison with conventional method.

Instrumental networks for monitoring short-period tectonic motions in seismic zones

For some years the monitoring of crustal movements in seismic zones has consisted mainly of periodic resurvey measurements using triangulation, trilateration, leveling, and gravity measurements. The frequency of remeasurements has been limited by the costs. Some fixed instruments have contributed also, such as creepmeters, tidegages, and devices for measuring tilts in lake levels. A number of inexpensive, shallow-borehole tiltmeters were installed recently in the U.S.A., but so far the noise level due to local ground motions appears to be fairly high for many instruments. Volumetric strainmeters are being used in several countries. 700 meter long laser strainmeters and a superconducting gravimeter have been in operation for several years at one site in California. Other simpler strainmeters and tiltmeters exist at a number of locations in seismic zones. Recently there has been increased interest both in trying to obtain frequent observations with fixed instruments and in reducing the noise level. Long-baseline liquid tiltmeters, deep-borehole tiltmeters, superconducting gravimeters, multi-wavelength laser distance-measuring devices, and laser strainmeters are capable of improved accuracy. However, they are more expensive than most previously used instruments. An additional future possibility is to use signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to monitor networks of points. The accuracy would be limited almost completely by uncertainty in the water-vapor corrections along the various satellite-to-ground propagation paths. It seems possible that 1 cm accuracy for detecting baseline changes with very low false alarm rates can be achieved by using water-vapor radiometers at many of the sites, provided that sufficient accuracy can be achieved with the radiometers. Highly mobile instruments are being constructed in the U.S.A. which will use the spread-spectrum GPS signals as noise sources for long baseline radio interferometry. Initial tests using the reconstructed carrier Doppler method instead have been carried out at another laboratory. Tests utilizing the reconstructed carrier phase method are planned by two groups. The cost of using GPS receivers in the survey mode seems likely to be low, but how expensive receivers plus radiometers for use in fixed locations will be, is not yet known.

Using the Global Positioning System (GPS) for geodetic positioning

The development of relatively inexpensive satellite receivers in the early 1970's has resulted in cost-effective applications of satellites for a variety of geodetic surveying needs. Currently achievable accuracies range from 10 to 20 centimeters. The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System, now under development by the Department of Defense, incorporates advanced technology which has the potential capability of revolutionizing satellite geodesy. Several concepts for utilizing GPS signals are briefly reviewed, and another concept, called the reconstructed carrier phase method, is described in some detail. This concept is being pursued by the Defense Mapping Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Geological Survey. These agencies have numerous requirements for accurate positioning. Several prototype receivers are planned to be available for testing in mid-1982. These receivers should be highly portable, consume little power, and obtain base line accuracies of several centimeters in several hours of observation time. However, water vapor radiometers will be needed in order to achieve the full accuracy. Initial simulation results utilizing the reconstructed carrier phase method are included.